PNNL researchers can now take cellulose to HMF in one step, a process that might someday replace crude oil to make fuel and plastics. (Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

In a Giant step towards sustainable ecosystem growth , researchers hope to turn plants into a renewable, nonpolluting replacement for crude oil. To achieve this, scientists have to learn how to convert plant biomass into a building block for plastics and fuels cheaply and efficiently. In new research, chemists have successfully converted cellulose — the most common plant carbohydrate — directly into the building block called HMF in one step.

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